5 - Winds of Trade from the Middle East

Summary

Chapter 5 focuses on the southern Cham nagaras. They were the earliest Chams in contact with Indic culture and Arabian merchants. Arabian merchants soon made the entry to the Cham courts from the southern coast to the northern coast. Most of the Cham embassy to China were led by the Li (Ali) and Pu (Abū) surnames between mid-nineth and twelfth centuries. The Arabian maritime network offers an important aspect through which to observe Cham polities and economy between the eighth and the twelfth centuries, a global background of which has been overlooked and marginalised in Cham historiography. Without this angle however, much of the histories of the southern nagaras and the sources of their wealth, the sudden boom of their monuments and inscriptions of the eighth century cannot be understood. The Viet southern advance pushed Muslim migration to Hainan and Guangzhou. Cham capital moved to Vijaya (Quy Nhon).